


WinterIron Prompt Fills

by Forlorn Kumquat (sara_wolfe)



Series: Imagine Tony and Bucky [1]
Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: Alternate Universe - High School, Gen
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-01-22
Updated: 2018-01-22
Packaged: 2019-03-08 02:50:37
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,739
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13448958
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/sara_wolfe/pseuds/Forlorn%20Kumquat
Summary: Shorter fills for the Imagine Tony and Bucky blog that aren't long enough to have their own entries. Individual prompts and warnings in each chapter.1: Military School AU





	WinterIron Prompt Fills

**Author's Note:**

> Prompt: I've always wanted to read a HS au, where Tony is new and assigned as Bucky's roommate. Tony is all bright, flashy smiles and sarcastic remarks during the day, but Bucky can hear him crying himself to sleep every single night and finally decides to do something about it and befriend the guy, because he seems super lonely.

It was the sound of quiet crying that woke him up first. 

Opening his eyes to a nearly pitch-black room, Bucky blinked a couple times at the alarm clock to make sure he was seeing the time correctly. Forty-five minutes after midnight; what the hell was he doing awake at forty-five minutes after midnight?

A hastily-muffled sob drew his attention toward the bathroom. The door was closed, with a weak sliver of light showing from under the door. Dragging himself reluctantly out of bed, Bucky twisted the doorknob to find it locked. He knocked on the door and the crying promptly turned into a startled sniffle. 

“Tony?” Bucky called, knocking again. “Tony, you okay in there?”

There was nothing but silence for so long that Bucky almost thought Tony was ignoring him. He’d just turned to go back to bed when he heard a muffled, “I’m fine.”

Well that was clearly a crock, since Bucky could hear the way Tony’s voice shook on the words. But, rumor had it there was a surprise lights-out inspection tonight, and Bucky wasn’t about to get caught out of bed. Tony wanted to sit in the bathroom all night and pretend he wasn’t crying? Well then his ass could get in trouble with the dorm sergeant. 

Resolutely ignoring the soft sounds he could still hear from the bathroom, Bucky climbed back into bed. He pulled the blankets all the way over his head to block out the sound of Tony crying, shutting his eyes and waiting for sleep to overtake him. But he could still hear Tony even through the blankets, and finally he threw off his blankets and stomped, irritated, back to the bathroom.

“Are you sure you’re okay in there?” he demanded, shocking Tony into silence again. 

“I’m fine,” Tony said, sounding a little less sniffly than before. Sharper, he added, “Just leave me the hell alone, Barnes,” and he was starting to sound more like the cocky asshole Bucky had come to know. This was a Tony Stark he knew how to deal with; not the kid who locked himself in the bathroom and cried like his heart was breaking.

“Don’t hog the bathroom all damn night,” Bucky told him. “I’ll drag you out kicking and screaming in the morning if I have to. I don’t care how long you think you need to make yourself pretty in the morning; I’m not missing breakfast because you want to primp.”

“Fuck you, Barnes, I’m gorgeous,” Tony retorted, and, yeah, he was back to normal. 

Rolling his eyes, Bucky thumped on the bathroom door once more for emphasis and then headed back to bed. But before he got back under the covers, he went to the other side of the room and grabbed Tony’s spare pillow and stuffed it lengthwise under the blankets, just in case the sergeant dropped in on them. He might not have known why Tony was crying, but at least he could make sure he didn’t have an even worse night by getting caught out of bed after lights out. Then he crawled back into bed and dropped off to sleep almost as soon as his head hit the pillow. 

The next morning, Tony was all smiles and endless chatter; there was no sign of the tears from last night. Bucky was almost tempted to think that he’d dreamed the whole thing up. But, there was a small box in the middle of his desk that hadn’t been there yesterday, wrapped in bright red paper that Bucky was pretty sure existed nowhere on campus and he had no idea how Tony had found it. Pulling the paper off the box, Bucky saw a gift card to his favorite hole-in-the-wall coffee shop off campus. There was nothing else inside the box, but it had to have come from Tony. 

“Did you buy this?” he asked Tony, who was just about to slip out the door. 

Tony shrugged, wordlessly, disappearing into the hallway before Bucky could ask him anything else. Bucky stared down at the gift card for a couple more seconds before giving up and shoving it in his wallet. He wasn’t going to waste anymore time trying to figure out his weird roommate.

* * *

The next two nights were peaceful. The third-

It wasn’t crying this time, but the sound of someone whimpering that pulled Bucky out of a sound sleep. He wasn’t sure where the sound was coming from, at first, but then he looked around and saw Tony curled into a tight ball under his blankets, dark hair just barely visible on the pillow. Tony was shaking, and making terrible little noises like someone was hurting him. 

Getting out of bed, Bucky cautiously approached Tony and put a hand on his shoulder, giving him a gentle shake to try and wake him up. The blankets fell away from Tony’s head, revealing his face screwed up in pain. Tears were leaking from the corners of his eyes. 

“Tony,” Bucky said, softly, giving him another shake. “Tony, c’mon man, wake up.”

Tony let another heartbreaking whimper, curling even tighter in on himself like he was expecting to be hit. “No, please-” he whispered, even though Bucky was sure he was still asleep. 

“Tony, wake up,” Bucky repeated, sharper, punctuating his words with a harder shake of his shoulder. 

Tony jerked under his hand, his hands flying up in front of his face like he was trying to protect himself. His eyes were open, but he didn’t seem to see Bucky crouched in front of him, and he was breathing in short, harsh gasps. He sounded - Bucky shuddered at the thought - he sounded like he was dying. 

“Tony, wake up!” Bucky snapped.

Tony jerked again before bolting upright, panic clear on his face. He pushed past Bucky and stumbled to the bathroom, slamming the door behind him, and a few seconds later, Bucky heard the unmistakable sound of retching. 

Unwilling to just go back to bed when his roommate was in so much distress, Bucky sat down outside the bathroom and waited for the sound of Tony throwing up to stop. It seemed like it was taking a lot longer than it should have, and Bucky was starting to get worried that there was something seriously wrong with Tony. He was about to go get the dorm sergeant - out-of-bed consequences be damned - when he heard the toilet flushing and water running in the sink. The water shut off a few seconds later, but the door stayed shut, and Bucky could see shadows shifting on the other side, like Tony was sitting on the floor. 

“Are you coming out of there anytime soon?” Bucky asked, after they’d sat in silence for several minutes with no indication of Tony budging. 

“No.”

“You can’t spend the whole night in the bathroom,” Bucky said, trying to coax a longer response out of Tony. 

A heavy sigh, and then, “Just go back to bed and leave me alone.” Tony’s voice sounded thick, like he’d been crying. 

“I’m not leaving you alone,” Bucky insisted. “Not when you just had a nightmare so bad it made you throw up.” When Tony didn’t say anything in response, Bucky ventured, “Do you want to talk about it?”

That got a hollow, bitter laugh out of Tony. “Hell, no, I don’t want to talk about it; I don’t even want to _think_ about it.”

“Okay,” Bucky replied. They sat in silence for another few minutes before Bucky tried again. “You know-”

“You should go to bed,” Tony interrupted him, abruptly. “I’m fine. Really.”

“If you’re sure,” Bucky said, hesitantly. 

“I’m sure,” Tony said. “Just go to bed. No use in both of us getting in trouble with the sergeant in the morning.”

Reluctantly, Bucky went back to bed. But he couldn’t sleep, lying awake all night and staring at the little strip of light under the bathroom door. By sunrise, his eyes felt gritty, like he’d been rubbing them with sand, and every time he closed his eyes, he could see an afterimage of the bathroom light against the backs of his eyelids. 

The bathroom door opened and Tony stepped out, looking not a lot better than Bucky felt. His eyes were puffy and red-rimmed, like he’d been crying, and his hair was sticking up straight from where he’d been leaning against the door all night. His eyes lit on Bucky, staring at him from bed, and he frowned. 

“You look like shit,” he said, bluntly. 

“Right back at’cha,” Bucky replied, his words interrupted by a huge yawn that made his jaw crack. “Oh, man, we are so screwed when the sergeant sees us.”

“Maybe not,” Tony said, a thoughtful look coming over his face. “Don’t go anywhere.”

“Where am I going to go?” Bucky asked, but Tony was already gone out the door and down the hallway. “Tony!” he hissed, as he jumped out of bed and tried to see where his stupid, sleep-deprived roommate had gone. “Tony, get back here!”

He was tempted to run after Tony to see if he could find him, but if he was caught out without a good excuse, he’d get in a world of trouble. Not to mention what would happen to Tony if Bucky couldn’t explain where he was. No, his best bet was to just stay put and hope that whatever Tony was up to, he was smart enough not to get caught at it. 

Tony was back twenty minutes later, face bright red and breathing hard from exertion. He had two large plastic cups in his hands, one of which he handed to Bucky with a flourish. Popping the lid off his cup, Bucky found his usual coffee order - a large black coffee with just a bit of cinnamon and whipped cream. Steve had teased him endlessly over his choice in coffees, telling him that he should just give up and order the fancy-ass mocha he so clearly wanted; Bucky didn’t realize how much he missed Steve teasing him over something as stupid as coffee until-

Bucky cut off that train of thought before he did something unforgivable like bursting into tears, and focused instead on Tony, sitting cross-legged on his own bed while he drank his coffee. He was bouncing in place on his bed, springs creaking slightly under his weight, and his free hand was drumming out a rapid pattern on the blankets. He was practically vibrating in place, and Bucky was getting tired just watching him. 

“Can you sit still?” he asked, trying not to make the words as sarcastic as they sounded in his head. 

Tony didn’t look offended by the question, though. “Sorry,” he said, deliberately flattening his hand on the bed. “I’m a little jazzed up; I ran all the way to the coffee shop and then all the way back.” While he was talking, he’d started absentmindedly drumming on the blankets again, fingers a blur of motion. 

“That’s not your first coffee, is it?” Bucky hazarded a guess, and Tony shook his head. 

“Drank the other one while I was waiting for these two to finish,” he confessed. “Which might have been a mistake, because before I was just exhausted, but now-”

“Now you feel like you’re going to jump out of your skin?” Bucky finished for him, when Tony trailed off, mid-sentence. 

“I just really need to move,” Tony told him. 

“Well you’re in luck,” Bucky told him, with a wry grin. “I’m pretty sure we’re starting the day with a five-mile run.”

Tony groaned, flopping back on the bed with his arms akimbo. His empty cup rolled off the bed and across the carpet. “I’m dead,” Tony moaned, dramatically. “You might as well write my obituary now, Barnes, because I’m a dead man.”

“Aw, c’mon, Princess,” Bucky said, jumping to his feet and grabbing Tony’s outstretched hand, dragging him up with him. “It won’t be as bad as you’re thinking.”

Tony kept bitching and moaning the whole time Bucky was dragging him down to breakfast, but an hour later, he was matching Bucky step for step the entire run. Looking at him, no one would ever have known that he’d been falling apart last night. And Bucky had the feeling that was exactly what Tony wanted.

* * *

This time, they didn’t even make three days. The very next night, Bucky woke up to the sound of Tony having another nightmare, agonizing sobs sounding like they were being torn from his throat. He opened his eyes when Bucky gently shook his shoulder, but this time there was no desperate dash for the bathroom. Instead, Tony curled in on himself and smashed his face into his pillow, desperately trying to hide from view. 

“You okay?” Bucky asked. 

A muffled groan was his only answer, and Tony reached out and grabbed the blankets, dragging them over his head. The silent ‘go away’ couldn’t have been clearer if Tony had actually spoken, but Bucky ignored it. 

A few minutes later, Tony poked his head out of the blankets enough to see Bucky sitting patiently on the floor by his bed. “Go away,” he muttered. Bucky ignored that, too. 

“I think by now,” he told Tony, “you and I both know I’m not going anywhere.” 

Tony groaned again, a defeated sound, but he didn’t move, didn’t try to hide under the blankets again, and Bucky took that as a sign of progress. After a couple more minutes of silence, he even relaxed enough to slump back against his pillow, letting go of his death grip on the blanket and letting it fall away from his shoulders. A soft blue light glowed out from under the blankets and, seeing Bucky’s curious gaze, Tony pulled the neck of his tee-shirt down enough to show a glowing blue _thing_ implanted in the middle of his chest. 

“It’s called an arc reactor,” Tony said, quietly, in response to the question Bucky couldn’t figure out how to ask. “It’s keeping me alive.”

Slowly, haltingly, he told Bucky about the horrors he’d experienced several months ago. About his father’s weapons demonstration, about being attacked and watching soldiers not much older than him dying, about waking up with shrapnel in his chest and a car battery keeping him alive. He talked about about being held captive and tortured to force his father to pay a ransom. How his captors found out that he had designed some of SI’s best weapons, about how they’d demanded that he build their weapons or be killed. And he talked about watching his fellow captive sacrifice his life to save him, and then escaping to wander desperately in the desert, praying to stay alive. The words were almost pouring out of him at the end, and Bucky had the feeling that Tony hadn’t talked about this to anyone else, before. 

“I can’t sleep anymore,” Tony finished, his voice no more than a ragged whisper. “Every time I close my eyes, I’m back in that cave. It’s all I see.”

“Tony, I’m sorry,” Bucky said, sympathetically. This time when he put his hand on Tony’s shoulder, Tony leaned into the touch. “Is that what all those nightmares were?” he asked. 

“More or less,” Tony admitted. “I don’t know how to make them stop.”

“Have you tried talking to someone about what happened?” Bucky suggested, and Tony laughed, bitterly. 

“My father’s never going to pay for me to see a therapist,” he said, shaking his head. “Howard Stark’s only son in therapy? His reputation would never recover, and he cares a hell of a lot more about his reputation than he does about me.”

“I’m sorry,” Bucky repeated. It felt woefully inadequate, but it was the only thing he could think of. 

“You should get some sleep,” Tony tried, but Bucky emphatically shook his head. 

“No way,” he said. “I’m not leaving you alone to stare at the ceiling all night. That’s not what friends do.”

Tony looked genuinely surprised by Bucky’s statement. “We’re friends?” he asked, sounding baffled. 

“Of course we’re friends,” Bucky told him, giving his shoulder a gentle shove. “C’mon. If neither of us is going to get any sleep, we might as well do something constructive with our time.” Shooting Tony a wicked grin, he added, “What do you say we sneak off campus and go get a midnight snack?”

Tony’s answering grin was shaky, but getting stronger. “You’re gonna be so much fun,” he declared.


End file.
